Platform Program Director

Platform Program Director, SF50

Report directly to the Vice President Platform and Programs, a pivotal Cirrus Product Development leadership team member. Located in beautiful Duluth, Minnesota, the home to our corporate headquarters, Duluth is a four-season city on the western tip of Lake Superior and was voted Best Town by Outside Magazine. The splendor of the world's largest freshwater lake offers many outdoor activities for adventure or rejuvenation. The North Shore lifestyle is known for its year-round activities, including bicycle and snowmobile trails, kayaking, rock climbing, fishing, hiking, golfing, sailing, and skiing. As a top employer in the area, Cirrus Aircraft was recently named "Best Overall Large Company to Work for in the Northland" and "Best Workplace Culture" by the Duluth News Tribune readers.

Job Summary

The Platform Director supports SF50

Platform project initiating, planning, executing, monitoring/controlling, and closing with primary focus on project scope, schedule and program budget, product bill of materials budget for the assigned aircraft platform's projects simultaneously. The Platform Director must be able to manage multiple projects using a deliverable and task Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) methodology, MS Project scheduling and MS PowerBI. This role is responsible to work with a cross-functional Integrated Project Team (IPT) in driving, coordinating, scheduling and measuring activities to obtain desired project or program results. This position requires a high degree of interaction and communication with multiple departments as well as internal/external stakeholders for success and therefore communication skills are critical. The Platform Director should be seen as the program visionary leader for the overall platform execution. This role will report directly to the VP of Platform Programs.

Duties and Responsibilities/Essential Functions

General

• Supervises assigned program and project managers

• Uses Cirrus New Product Introduction System (NPIS) and phased gating system methodology, applies PMBOK standards, applies Cirrus standards, and continuously improves program management tools to effectively manage multiple projects with competing timelines and resources with predictable results.

• Drives transparency of program execution health through quantities execution/deliverable measurement week by week, month by month, quarter by quarter.

• Effectively uses and trains project teams on Cirrus Program Management tools and standards.

• Responsible for delivering projects individually or as part of a program to the approved scope, timeline, and budget.

• Uses Program Management tools daily/weekly/monthly as a standard for self and leading others. (IPT, Rolling Action Item List (RAIL), Integrated Master Schedule (IMS), Project Charter, Risk Management Tools, etc…)

• Work with teams to implement PM standards and support continuous improvement on PM practices based on PMBOK standards.

• May be involved in developing and delivering training content or courses.

Project Initiating & Planning

• Facilitates all aspects of a project charter to final state in professional presentation. Coordinates facts and data for business plan and financial model, which include product pricing, unit volume and margin assumptions compared to program investment costs to arrive at NPV targets that meet company ROI hurdles

• Facilitates new project proposals with appropriate stakeholders and drives decision making with appropriate business information from a cross-functional team.

• Works with finance on appropriate business model template for consistency and planning.

• Drafts business case.

• On product development projects, work closely with Platform Chief Engineer (CE) and Platform Product Line Manager (PLM) as core team. Evaluate if there are other core members depending on scope (Information Technology would be a good example of needing others).

• Works with PLM and CE on Market Requirements & Objectives (MR&O) and Design Requirements & Objectives (DR&O). Ensures that an Integrated Project Team (IPT) is in mind and ensures collaboration is happening with appropriate stakeholders.

• Works with area leadership to build Integrated Project Team(s) (IPT).

• Supports development and measurement against business plans, MR&O, and DR&O. May potentially include Business Requirements & Objectives (BR&O) depending on project type.

• Drives project and program decisions.

Project Executing and Monitoring/Controlling

• Leads and focuses on development and implement strategy, plans and tactics for current projects to achieve project and program deliverables.

• Acts as bridge or "glue" between cross functional departments to ensure each function's inputs/outputs and lead time requirements are built into project plans and their execution measured

• Oversees purpose and status of the projects in a program and can use this oversight to support project-level activity to ensure program goals being met by providing a decision-making capacity that can't be achieved at the project level.

• Develop project work breakdown structures and associated estimates for work package costs and resources through coordination with the project team and area leadership.

• Maps out project dependencies and defines for team what needs to be completed to reach individual project and overall program goals.

• Focuses on strategy and implementation and how to effectively delegate the projects and task needs.

• Provides insight on risk, issues, requirements, design, and/or solution to be able to effectively manage projects in program and associated dependencies.

• Maintain a minimum of 36-month platform program planning, resource management (people, financial, space, assets, etc…), product roadmap with associated constraints and planning visibility. Actively works to address issues and prioritize with and platform/project team and the associated status and priority queue. (Longer interval may be required as determined by teams).

• Works collectively with other Project and Program managers to balance needs and constraints.

• Develop project deliverable output metrics by function, schedules, and reports using MS Project while considering Project Sponsor's strategic objectives for milestone completions.

• Perform critical path analyses and make recommendations for schedule improvement that will reduce schedule risk.

• Conduct change impact assessments for scope changes, trends, and change notices initiated from the project management system and report any schedule and cost implications.

• Conduct and regularly assess project risk management and develop mitigation plans. Project/program dashboard contains risk review.

• Organize data and support process flow exercises.

• Manages to the approved business case, Marketing Requirements and Objectives (MR&O,) and Design Requirements and Objectives (DR&O) and Operations Requirements and Objectives (OR&O).

• Responsible for data management and analysis of project metrics.

• Maintain accurate project time estimating and tracking.

• Track and manage progress to plans and provide periodic reviews of how the plan is tracking actual/target to goals.

• Support project budget primarily in managing expenses and ensuring proper processing and tracking.

• Maintain accurate records of committed, expended and forecasted project costs.

• Drives project and program decisions.

Communication & Team

• Articulates the goals and objectives of the program and how it will impact the business at an and team level.

• Provides project manager(s) and IPT members with direction and acts as a sounding board for ideas and approaches to solving project issues that have project or program impacts

• Communicate with project team any schedule conflicts, resource constraints or time constraints.

• Works with project team(s) to resolve problems or constraints that arise and has appropriate escalation measures in place.

• Information presented is in a format and with enough detail that is proposes decisions with adequate background, risk, business need, etc…

• Excellent communicator with a patient yet high traction leadership styling.

• Excellent facilitator to bring cross-functional team together to meet goals, resolve issues and conflict, and problem solve together.

• Leads the team and is looked to for guidance versus needing to step in and do the team's work for them.

• Manages team expectations with current project status, team performance, and issue/risk resolution.

• Drives a system of short interval management which identifies early execution issues which will affect subsequent deliverables if not addressed with urgency

• Manages team's performance to project plan and participation as a requirement of the PM role and the team member commitment to role.

• Ensures team members feel valued, recognizes and praises superior work, and maintains quality working environment for the project team(s).

• Manages relationships and personalities with the ability to collaborate and maintain successful team member (and/or department) relationships.

• Ensures IPT team is clear on roles and responsibilities to project plan, team, and communication needs and manages team performance to roles.

• Works collectively with other Project and Program managers to balance needs and constraints.

• Skilled use of internet call and web conference tools. Seeks to bring in offsite members.

• Speaking and presentation style that is professional, concise, but still provides a very clear summary and analysis of project item status through measurement of program performance.

• May have direct or dotted line project reports depending on project and platform needs.

• As a cross-functional leader, professionalism in speaking, presenting, communicating with team members and executives is required and expected to lead by example.

• Effective communication planning and strategy for messaging and understanding desired results is critical. Actively reviews communication (or lack thereof) for unintended consequences.

• Positive outlook, demeanor, and attitude. Looks for opportunity to bring positive outcomes and dispositions in others when dealing with sometimes critical or distressing information.

Other

• Managing several projects as part of a platform or program requires extreme attention to detail.

• Business casual appearance, or above, as required for daily and/or meeting needs.

• Cleanliness and organization of workstation with 6S principles is required and expected to lead by example.

• Meeting punctuality and preparedness is required and expected to lead by example.

Qualifications

Education and/or Experience:

• Bachelor's degree (B.A. or B.S.) from four-year college or university, and 12 years of project management experience and/or training; or equivalent combination of education and experience.

• Must have previous department leadership of direct reports

• Master's degree preferred.

• PMP certification is preferred

Job Knowledge, Skills, or Abilities:

• Good organizational skills and the ability to coordinate between disparate tasks.

• High attention to detail and accuracy.

• Timely completion of scheduled work.

• Strong business finance understanding and strong MS Excel skills (ability to synthesize data into pivot table summaries and graphical/visual chart

• Excellent and professional communication skills in all forms and formats (public speaking, team meetings, PowerPoint, memos, emails, charters, internal/external, etc.).

• Ability to assess root cause of problems, obtain consensus for solutions and drive solutions

• Exceptional facilitation skills to bring a cross-functional team together to accomplish tasks and goals.

• Good problem-solving skills with knowledge of six-sigma or lean office tools.

• To perform this job successfully, an individual should have knowledge of ERP, UltiPro, MS Project tools, MS Excel, database management; internet software; and spreadsheet, presentation, project management and word processing software. The job also requires proficiency using company web/video/audio conferencing services (currently Skype for Business, WebEx, Microsoft Teams and LifeSize).

Competencies

To perform the job successfully, an individual should demonstrate the following competencies:

• Attracts Top Talent: Attracts and selects the best talent to meet current and further business needs.

• Being Resilient: Rebounds from setbacks and adversity when facing difficult situations.

• Drives Engagement: Creates a climate where people are motivated to their best to help the organization achieve its objectives.

• Manages Complexity: Makes sense of complex, high quantity, and sometimes, contradictory information to effectively solve problems.

• Organizational Savvy: Maneuvers comfortably through complex policy, process, and people-related organizational dynamics.

Other Duties

Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this position. Duties, responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without notice. Work beyond 40 hours per week may be required.

Cirrus is dedicated to a drug-free work environment that promotes equal employment opportunities. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, sex, national origin, color, age, disability, religion, pregnancy, veteran status, marital and family status, sexual orientation, receipt of public assistance, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.